ThunderStruck: WWE Payback Reaction

Sheamus defeats Damien Sandow on the pre show using the brogue kick: Sandow looked damn good in this match. Both guys put on a decent story and the finish was really no surprise. The Chicago(Rosemont) crowd was hot for this one to start the night.

Curtis Axel defeats Wade Barrett and the Miz to win the IC Championship: The match itself was decent, but I hate watching a triple threat with only two guys involved half the time. I was ecstatic to see Curtis Axel come away with the IC Belt on Father’s Day and the crowd was very favorable. Awesome ending with Axel pinning Barrett while Miz had Barrett trapped in the figure four leglock. My only argument to the finish is that Miz never released the hold and the ref will count during a normal figure four when the opponent’s shoulders are on the mat, so therefore Miz and Axel BOTH pinned Barrett. I doubt this will come up though.

AJ Lee defeats Kaitlyn to become the new Divas Champion: Best divas match since Beth Phoenix was an active wrestler. Good stuff for once and a good story was told. I enjoyed this.

Dean Ambrose defeats Kane by countout after a DDT on the outside: I didn’t expect Kane to win and the outcome was well planned. I liked seeing Kane mesh with Ambrose, and I’m even more looking forward to seeing who else Kane works with in 2013 after the amazing he had with Daniel Bryan.

Alberto Del Rio defeats Dolph Ziggler to become the new World Champion: I don’t understand this booking one bit, but I’m assuming it’s being done to enhance characters and build for something bigger. Dolph dropping the gold so quick without even having more than one chance to defend it makes zero sense to me. It seems like WWE could be trying to blur the lines of the concussion that Ziggler suffered by bringing it in as a storyline during the match and giving him an excuse to lose. A Ziggler face turn with the heat on Del Rio would be perfect(though I liked Del Rio as a face). The match itself was pretty good, but I didn’t like the storyline trainers checking on Ziggler as an interruption to what was going on.

CM Punk defeats Chris Jericho after two back to back GTS finishers: Excellent match. This wasn’t the best in their series of four matches, but I would rank this one in a three way tie with their match from Raw this year and their WrestleMania 28 battle. Nothing they did in any of those three matches can top the encounter they had at Extreme Rules 2012, however. Great stuff overall, and I’m glad to see Punk back in a WWE ring. We missed him.

Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns defeat Dbry and Randy Orton when Rollins pins Dbry after a curb stomp: Fast paced and awesome as usual. Daniel Bryan could take on the entire Shield single handedly and be just as entertaining as all the four and six man tag matches that we’ve seen. Great stuff here. Good booking to keep all the belts on the Shield.

John Cena defeats Ryback to retain the WWE Championship: I wasn’t excited by anything about this match, but I did get some good chuckles out of the finishing sequence around the ambulance. It’s just funny that everything was so entertaining up until this match when it’s supposed to be the “main event.” Smart work WWE. If the rumors are true and Cena will feud next with Daniel Bryan, then I’m one happy fan.

Throughout the show, we saw a Bray Wyatt promo, a Rob Van Dam return for MITB promo, and a segment with Vince McMahon, Triple H, Curtis Axel and Paul Heyman. The Wyatt family should debut very soon. RVD returning doesn’t do anything to excite me. I hope we get to see Axel face Triple H in a legitimate one on one match on Raw as planned.

Great show overall. The wrestling outweighed everything and we were delivered a very solid card(including the divas). I can’t wait to see what we get from Money In The Bank next month! Thanks for reading!

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Joe Thunder has been a fan of wrestling for over 20 years and has been reviewing shows on a full time basis since 2011. He currently publishes a once a week podcast and reviews whatever shows he can find the time to watch for his column, ThunderStruck.